Sour economy haunts job fair

Friday

Mar 27, 2009 at 2:00 AM

NEW PALTZ — Anxiety and optimism – on both sides of the recruitment tables – were the were the hallmarks a job fair Thursday at SUNY New Paltz. Nearly three dozen companies, ranging in size and impact from job-shedding IBM to the tiny Tuthilltown Spirits micro-distillery, spent four hours wooing hundreds of curious students to their tables.

BY JEREMIAH HORRIGAN

NEW PALTZ — Anxiety and optimism — on both sides of the recruitment tables — were the were the hallmarks a job fair Thursday at SUNY New Paltz.

Nearly three dozen companies, ranging in size and impact from job-shedding IBM to the tiny Tuthilltown Spirits micro-distillery, spent four hours wooing hundreds of curious students to their tables.

To some observers, the presence of IBM recruiters seemed anomalous. Not at all, said recruiter Chris Algozzine. The company was recruiting potential computer science majors for a summer program, "something that we're always doing."

Over at First Investing, a Wall Street firm, recruiter Angela Parrinello said she was asked questions this year that never would have occurred to students last year — questions about the company's solvency.

Junior Diana Ortiz said the job market looked a bit scary to her; friends were telling her they were thinking about going to grad school rather than venturing into the market.

As a junior, she said, she had another year to think about it. Computer science major Senior Travis Nanek was less anxious about the job market.

"I still live at my parents' place," he said.

There were recruiters from Target, looking for what they called executive team leaders; they attracted nearly 50 applications half-way through the event.

Across the way, radio station WRRV-FM was casting about for part-timers willing to be part of the station's road crew — the people who play music at public events. They'd garnered only half a dozen applications.